HMS ENTERPRISE |
HMS ENTERPRISE returns home after
19 month deployment
Ship will arrive at Devonport
on Friday...
The advanced Royal Navy survey ship HMS Enterprise is sailing into her
homeport of Devonport on Friday (April3) after a mammoth 19-month
deployment.
The deployment has taken her from Plymouth via the west-African coast,
around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Indian Ocean and the Straits
of Hormuz into the Arabian Gulf- before heading home via the Suez
Canal and the Mediterranean. In total eighteen ports have been visited
by HMS Enterprise during her epic voyage.
The key task of the crew was to ensure the freedom of navigation for
marine traffic in previously poorly charted waters. In so doing HMS
Enterprise has also enhanced defence relations and promoted the
interests of the UK in rarely visited regions as a by-product of her
presence.
More recently the ship spent six months in the Northern Arabian Gulf
ensuring the safe navigation for oil tankers, these being crucial to
the Iraqi economy.
Her West African tour included visits to Sierra Leone, Cape Verde,
Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon, where she was primarily
engaged in hydrographic, oceanographic and meteorological surveying
operations. These areas had most of their charts drawn in the mid-19th
century and any subsequent charts based on a combination of
out-of-date surveying and guesswork, with huge tracts being completely
blank.
Not all of HMS Enterprise’s survey work took place at sea - the crew
even surveyed the coast with one project being a joint survey of
Banjul Harbour for The Gambia. Other co-operative surveys included a
survey of the approaches to Sierra Leone, a harbour check survey for
Cameroon, GPS work in Ghana and deep water work for the Seychelles.
The ship has made new friends and alliances for the Royal Navy in
these rarely visited regions.
Aside from survey work HMS Enterprise contributed to the Remembrance
Sunday Ceremonies while deployed and even played the combined Gambian
Armed Forces at football in their National Stadium incurring a narrow,
but ‘diplomatic’ loss. This was one of many ‘international’ matches
played during the deployment.
On her way to the Gulf HMS Enterprise visited Cape Town, then the
Indian Ocean and Seychelles. From the Seychelles she sailed up to the
Arabian Gulf. where she worked in the approaches to the Arabian Gulf-
one of the world’s busiest waterways to gather a significant amount of
data in this region. The crew made a positive impact on safety in this
crucial area of sea.
On leaving the Strait of Hormuz in September last year HMS Enterprise
worked in the Northern Arabian Gulf as part of Op Telic. Her work,
contributing to ensuring navigational safety, will have a real and
positive benefit for the economy of Iraq. Oil tankers in the region
are higher than average insurance premium due to the poorly charted
waters and presence of mine danger areas. The Royal Navy’s survey work
will update Admiralty charts - thereby reducing the insurance
premiums, which will directly benefit Iraq’s Oil and Maritime trade.
After finishing this in February, it was a straight transit home,
through the Med and Suez Canal, with just one quick stop off for
Easter weekend in Gibraltar before the ship returns into her base port
for a well deserved home coming.
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